DIY BOOM POLE by The Frugal Film Maker?

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I see this kind of stuff all the time. I have nothing against DIY stuff, but when I see the tools required to make them, the time it takes, I often think "when it's all said done, it probably cost more to make that than just buying an inexpensive pole made by people that know what they are doing and make boom poles designed to be boom poles".
 
davefisk said:
I see this kind of stuff all the time. I have nothing against DIY stuff, but when I see the tools required to make them, the time it takes, I often think "when it's all said done, it probably cost more to make that than just buying an inexpensive pole made by people that know what they are doing and make boom poles designed to be boom poles".
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Nah not really. It costs $25-30 to buy the materials, and I can get a friend who works in construction to do the few cutting or drilling that needs to be done for free. I doubt I'd find a decent boom pole for $30 (which is all I can spend on one at the moment)
 
I have used one and they work great and have lots of length. Though you will need a good shock mount, his diy one isn't very good.
 
Saharanturtle said:
Nah not really. It costs $25-30 to buy the materials, and I can get a friend who works in construction to do the few cutting or drilling that needs to be done for free. I doubt I'd find a decent boom pole for $30 (which is all I can spend on one at the moment)
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I'm talking about materials, and having to get a drill and dremel tool, plus the time. If you have someone with the tools that can get it done for you, then go for it. Your signature suggests you are a student film maker, and taking this kind of DIY initiative shows some level of creativity on your part, which is good. I remember what it's like to be a student, and any way I could save money to get drum gear (I was session drumming at the time), I would do it. At your level, you don't need top notch gear. What bothers me is when I see people think that a lot of these DIY things are as good as what the real manufacturers make (not saying you are claiming that, but I have seen it). I see it all the time. People tell me their DIY pole is just as good as a K-Tek pole, and then I hand them one of our cheapest poles, and then I see the light bulb go on in their head.
 
davefisk said:
What bothers me is when I see people think that a lot of these DIY things are as good as what the real manufacturers make (not saying you are claiming that, but I have seen it). I see it all the time.
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100% agree that this one isn't near the quality as one of your poles. Though I do strongly believe that just because someone made it at home doesn't mean that a manufacturers is any better. And that a DIY pole can very well be much better than one of your poles.

This pole is efficient and effective enough to be used on any shoot. As far as having the tools, all you really need is apoxy.

Edit: did not intend to sound like I was attacking you at all. K-tek poles are the way to go if you can afford it.
 
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Hassan, you can make a very nice pole on your own with no tools and in very little time. There are many options when it comes to poles to start with. The video has a nice technique, but requires some tools. I did it with a slightly different approach.

Recipe:

Go to the hardware store and find a great painting pole. They make very light, very strong ones now, with or without extension. Pick your favorite; fiberglass or aluminum. Bring your microphone or a weight similar to it and some tape. Tape it to the pole at full extension to see how it behaves before you buy. There are other options such as car washing wands that are exceptionally strong, and compact, but cost a few more dollars and don't extend as long as you might want.
While there, get a 5/8-27 x 2" (or whatever size you need for your microphone holder) bolt suitable for your microphone holder and some epoxy. Not the liquid kind, but the two part 'clay' type.

Remove the plastic screw at the top to which the roller attaches. If you don't have strong plyers, you can pop it out by prying it against some concrete.
The bolt will fit nicely inside the pole, where you just removed the plastic paint roller screw.
Mix up some of the epoxy and pack it around the bolt head and also put some at the top of the pole.
Push the bolt into the pole and then add more epoxy. You want about 1 3/4" of epoxy and bolt in the tube. Just leave as much of the bolt exposed as you need for your microphone holder.
Wait 24 hours for the epoxy to harden.
Solid, light, cheap. I did this for a total cost of under $10 (I had the epoxy).
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AS with all DIY YMMV. A boom pole is a good project (if your not working professionally) because at it's heart it's very simple. When you buy a professional pole your paying for weight, durability, compact-ability, and handling noise. Painters poles often don't score very high in those areas. They tend to be heavy (compared to a real pole). They are only as durable as you are skilled at making them. They don't get very small. And they often have a lot of handling noise. They will work but you will be happy when you upgrade.

And it's not practically possible to make as good a pole as you can buy. You can make a fixed length pole that is as good probably but a fixed length pole is not as god as one you can fold up and put in your luggage.

To make a collapsible one of high quality would require some custom parts and hardware you probably can't get and if you could it would put your DIY pole in the same price range as a professional pole.
 
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Noiz2 said:
it's not practically possible to make as good a pole as you can buy.
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Are people not making that pole that you buy? Very well many people are not crafty enough or even want to try, but it is like I said, completely possible to make a pole better than ones you can buy... Just as it is possible to make a guitar, microphone, or a kitchen table. If someone else can do it why can't I?

As an example... I could purchase every piece that goes into making a K-tek pole, and put it together. Now I added cable clips, velcro, custom paint, whatever... And now I have a better pole. DIY wins.
 
my issue with these cheap diy solutions, is that at the end of the day there's a reason you pay $100 for a proper one and not $30. As well, rock up to a job with a diy boom pole and a pvc pipe shockmount - that's really going to scream professional to a client. Even on a zero budget project, I keep a level of professionalism for myself and my crew, so for me it's worth the extra $70 to buy a real boom pole.
 
sludge_roach said:
As an example... I could purchase every piece that goes into making a K-tek pole, and put it together. Now I added cable clips, velcro, custom paint, whatever... And now I have a better pole. DIY wins.
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Um...actually, you couldn't, unless you bought all the pieces from us directly...after we machined our collars..cut, machined, and anodized (it's not painted. paint comes off. an aluminum pole must be anodized) the aluminum sections (on an avalon pole), machined the delrin base...it goes on. There is a lot more that goes into building even our most basic pole than most people realize, and our parts aren't just off the shelf stuff. So, you could buy all the pieces and parts from us individually, but then you wouldn't know how we put them together and what we use to put them together. If you did manage to get one together, it would have cost you more in the long run to do all that than just buying one from your local dealer. This is why you see these lower budget DIY projects out there.
 
jax_rox said:
my issue with these cheap diy solutions, is that at the end of the day there's a reason you pay $100 for a proper one and not $30. As well, rock up to a job with a diy boom pole and a pvc pipe shockmount - that's really going to scream professional to a client. Even on a zero budget project, I keep a level of professionalism for myself and my crew, so for me it's worth the extra $70 to buy a real boom pole.
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You can buy a good boom pole for $100? I had no idea. I thought a good one cost considerably more.
 
OldCorpse said:
You can buy a good boom pole for $100? I had no idea. I thought a good one cost considerably more.
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B&H has 4 from their 'boompole selection guide' for under $200... one under $100. But in any case... the Wife has already spent that $100... so I'm still left with converting the broomstick to boompole...

I do have a drill, because that allows me to fix things on the weekend that the Wife wants fixing... well, actually it is 'lost' at the moment, so, the Wife has the ability to yell at me about how nothing ever gets done... hopefully I won't find it accidentally...
 
I've never made one from a painters pole but since we have a pool and go through at least one pole a year, I used them. They're lighter, more rigid and already anodized. What they aren't is compact so unless you have a truck or roof racks, they're hard to transport but they work like a charm.

I buy all my shock mounts.
 
Hassan,

Another option is a light stand (Amazon.com, search 'light stand'). The advantage over paint poles is that they are multi-stage (3 or 4 sections) like pro poles and they are compact. There are 7', 10' and 13' stands. For $12-$25, you have a compact, multi-stage pole.

Just throw the legs away.

Here is a 10' pole. It comes with a bag. It is all lightweight metal construction except for the tightening knob.
http://www.amazon.com/Ravelli-Photo...600U/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1311634725&sr=8-6
I have this stand. It is plenty solid for boom use.
 
davefisk said:
Um...actually, you couldn't.
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Orrr.... I could. Anyone could learn how to and actually follow through with cutting, machining, anodizing, whatever you want to make there own pole, ANYONE!

Anything can be learned and done. We are traveling in space, not random, people learned and executed how. Boom poles are simple.
 
sludge_roach said:
Orrr.... I could. Anyone could learn how to and actually follow through with cutting, machining, anodizing, whatever you want to make there own pole, ANYONE!

Anything can be learned and done. We are traveling in space, not random, people learned and executed how. Boom poles are simple.
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Yes, you could learn. The folks in our shop know how to do it all, but they aren't making boom poles at home. The reason is because you have to have the proper equipment to make finely machined parts. You have to have anodizing equipment. You have to have warehouse space. Those are things the average person doesn't have. If you don't want to set up your own shop, you will have to farm out the work, which will cost you more money in the long run than just buying a pole. Basically, you would need to start your own manufacturing business to make whatever it is you want to make, and at that point, it's well beyond making or getting something on the cheap to save a few bucks

I suggest you visit some manufacturing facilities like us, or Lectro, or Sound Devices, or any other major audio manufacturer and check out their operations so you can see how things are actually done. It's not as simple as you think it is.
 
Oh Please. Enough! Let's get back to Hassan and how we can advise him about making a pole. A student filmaker does not need advice on how vendors make poles. He just wants to make a low cost, adequate pole for his current needs. When he gets sufficient funds, I'm sure he will be glad to use his time on the film and not on the poles.
 
Right, but it is important for people to know what goes into making products, and why they cost what they do. All too often I hear "oh, that's overpriced for what it is" without any thought of how things are actually made.

In terms of DIY pole, I find the less work in order to get something to work, the better. I've seen everything from a broom stick with a mic duct taped to it (I have a picture of that somewhere) to elaborate DIY setups that take lots of time and money. If you want to save cash, the key is to find products that will work with the smallest amount of modification. That light stand seems interesting. Sure, it's a bit heavy, but it has the needed thread, so for something that will just get the mic out there, it's a good solution for the high-school student film maker, or someone who needs something and is just making videos for fun. It's all a learning process. It's like when I used to make "stop motion" videos when I was a kid with my dad's video camera by just pressing the record button to start and stop the recording really fast, with no sense of how many frames were recorded or anything like that. Sure, I wasn't using a real film camera, and wasn't following any sort of stop motion rules, but I learned other things, and learned that it really does take professional tools to get the job done properly.
 
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